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FINAL FANTASY ALL THE BRAVEST Review

PROS

Homage to the ATB system by placing a timer on just about everything it possibly can have.

Lots of heroes to unlock.

CONS

Utterly devoid of gameplay; tapping without any agency over the actions is no better than a toy.

.... pay. And pay. And pay. And pay. And pay...

VERDICT

Seconds of gameplay, with potentially hours of waiting - this is freemium brought to its horrifying and expensive end point, squandering any potential All The Bravest has.

Full Review

App Store Info

Final Fanasy: All The Bravest by Square Enix and Bit Groove is a love letter to the JRPG's use of the classic 'ATB' system of combat by which players must wait until each character has rested long enough before attacking again. There's a giant problem though - the concept has been taken too far and the end result is Square Enix's most self-indulgent experiment in laundering money from its franchise and those who suffer through such 'nostalgic' modern titles.

Once you've selected a battle on the over-world (be it a series of basic creatures or a boss battle), you'll be taken to a familiar battle screen where players must tap their party members to make them atta....

And that's it. You battle; you tap; you watch them die instantly to a single hit; and you repeat. It's whack-a-mole without a soul.

Leveling up will earn you additional slots for your party, resulting in a veritable screen full of heroes attempting to mob the... er... mobs to death. Occasionally you'll unlock a new hero archetype, though players can spend more cash to unlock 'premium' heroes from the various canons of the Final Fantasy lore.

Should your party be depleted before ending a fight you'll have to wait three minutes per hero you want to regenerate. Lets go over that again - if you're fighting a particularly nasty boss with say 20 heroes, that's an HOUR just to continue beating him down and potentially failing yet again. Don't worry though, In-App Purchasing comes to the rescue again as golden time-turners will replenish your party instantly.

That's right, this paid-for game is in fact a freemium title.

Sick of the Final Fantasy 1 world? Just hit up the store, purchase a world ticket and you're off to a new land. All for the cozy price of purchasing the game yet again. To do the exact same thing you're already doing. Again.

Credit to Bit Groove for the stunningly simple and potentially engaging concept, but greed has twisted and stripped out any sense of player agency beyond slapping the screen. For this you must pay. And pay. And pay. And...

Description

FINAL FANTASY ALL THE BRAVEST—A pick-up-and-go game with massive battles!

■Take part in intense combat with the largest parties in FINAL FANTASY history!
FINAL FANTASY ALL THE BRAVEST is a casual and light-hearted game in which you continuously battle enemies to advance through the many available stages. Defeat foes to level up, which in turn grants you character slots to add more and more members to your party.
Simply tap or drag your finger over a character to unleash an attack. Touch multiple characters in quick succession to experience exhilarating and fast-paced battle unlike anything you’ve ever played before!
Once every three hours, the Fever option will appear. Once activated, you will be able to attack without waiting for ATB gauges to refill as long as the chocobo-themed music is playing. Deal as much damage as you can before the battle fever ends!

■Featuring nostalgic pixel art and music from throughout the FINAL FANTASY series!
Progress through the game to unlock over 20 different classic jobs, including warrior, monk, red mage, and more! Each job brings its own special abilities to the battleground, where you will encounter timeless FINAL FANTASY foes such as behemoths, bombs, and cactuars. At the end of each stage waits a harrowing encounter with a fiendish FINAL FANTASY boss!
The game’s musical library comes packed with over 30 songs from the series, the majority of which are themes from battle. The perfect soundtrack to listen to as you crush your enemies and see them driven before you!

■Track your collection of every character, enemy, and item with in-game catalogs!
The game’s three catalogs will keep a record of every character that joins your ranks, every enemy you encounter, and every item you obtain. Collect them all and open the catalogs to flip through the nostalgia whenever you like!

■Take part in leaderboards and social networking features!
Global leaderboards will rank players based on stats such as the amount of damage dealt in the course of a single Fever. You will also be able to track progress and other feats using the game’s achievement system. Social networking features allow you to post directly to Twitter, and reward you for doing so by granting additional member slots. Tweet away to increase the size of your party for an even more exhilarating experience!

■Purchase premium characters and new game worlds!
The in-game shop offers access to 35 famous characters from a number of FINAL FANTASY titles. Each purchase ensures you will receive a new, random character, and FINAL FANTASY characters who before existed only as polygons have been redrawn here in original pixel art form! Which powerful favorites will join your party? You are also able to purchase additional game stages from FINAL FANTASY VII, FINAL FANTASY X, and FINAL FANTASY XIII. Board airships bound for these new worlds and expand your adventures and collections!

What's New in Version 1.1.0

- A total of 10 gold hourglasses are now awarded during the tutorial. (An additional 10 gold hourglasses will be sent to any players who have already completed the tutorial.)
- A tutorial is now displayed whenever all party members die.
- Game Center achievements no longer fail to unlock when their conditions are met.
- Several other minor bugs have been addressed.

Rip off ridiculously high prices and cash-grabing inapp purchases will have me boycott this companies games until management get their shit together and stop taking advantage of gamers.

in 2013 SQUARE ENIX is a big joke!

WavingPeople1 year, 10 months ago

This review is 100% accurate.

TheAspieFox1 year, 10 months ago

I can't help but wonder how many apps have a score of 1 on this site.

ravagerr1 year, 10 months ago

same here! this is the BEST REVIEW I'VE SEEN.... EVER!!!

ColeDaddy2 years, 6 months ago

Best review ever, dude

talugo2 years, 6 months ago

Kudos on the funny review Andrew! I'm glad you were on this game review quickly to stop me from investing time on this giant frustration. That's what I like about middle manager of justice, freemium done right.

curtneedsaride2 years, 6 months ago

Why didn't you just exit out of the battle before your last character died? Then you can return to the battle with ALL of your party immediately! Or better yet, return to a previous battle and grind a bit to up your party and weapons. It's a funfest for someone like me who enjoys relaxing by grinding away on battles in RPGs.

No one should ever have to use an hourglass unless their whole party dies in one of the first four stages where the menu isn't on the bottom of the screen yet. After that, you should always exit a battle before your entire party dies.

idonnied2 years, 6 months ago

great review! loved the funny aspects!

JuhRo2 years, 6 months ago

No reason to hate SE.. They produce great games. They just need a little more incentive and intent when it comes to the app store. Their rehashes have been nothing short of amazing and I've played 8/10th of the releases on the iOS. Don't be one of those "good thing I never liked -----". Makes you nothing more than a video game hipster. Blech.

djstout2 years, 6 months ago

Great games for crazy prices! You can get games as good as SE's softwares for a single dollar with not IAP that will ruin you. Electronic Arts are doing great job too and made some of the best games, and guess what, those games are affordable. I like SE's game and I would love to buy "The world ends with you", but 16 dollar for a game is just too crazy

makedonii2 years, 6 months ago

hahahahah this was funny! oh man good for me that i dont like the FF series, and this give me more reason to hate Square Enix, i hate their arrogance and greed for money. Only SquareEnix game can cost a fortune in the AppStore! yeapp, that tells it all!

djstout2 years, 6 months ago

I totally agree with you in a way, I hate the way SquareEnix are pricing their games! And the craziest part is that they even added IAP that are mostly out of price!!!!!